I read frequently among the lesserly neuronal of the supposed honor of soldiers, of the military virtues of courage, loyalty, and uprightness--that in an age of moral decomposition only the military adhere to principles, and that our troops in places like Afghanistan nobly make sacrifices to preserve our freedoms and democracy. Is not all of this nonsnese? Honor? A soldier is just a nationally certified hit-man, perfectly amoral. When he joins the military he agrees to kill anyone he is told to kill, regardless of whether he has previously heard of the country in which he will kill them or whether the residents pose any threat to him or his. How is this honorable? It is cause for lifelong shame.Read the Article Here!

So I take my son Carter downtown to check out the Amtrak 40th Anniversary train. I decide to take MAX in from the Sunset TC since I was planning on doing some other things in Beaverton on my return.

On my return trip, the cash TVM at Pioneer Courthouse Square westbound was broken. OK, I'll give TriMet a pass here. I walk over to the new Finnegan's Toys & Games, then to Galleria & 10th. The cash machine there is broken too. WTF?

So I call 238-RIDE. I press option '5' to report a broken TVM. It plays through the spiel and right as it's supposed to put me to a mailbox...I hear the TriMet duh-duh-duh-da-duh jingle and the menu starts over. Now I can't even report a broken machine?

So, TriMet's officially out $1.50 because I tried to be a good guy and pay the fare even though my son just turned seven a few months ago. What happened to the machines that were supposed to be working?

“We maintain that the people of Boring meet all of the (lawful) requirements,” he said, “and the TriMet board, by law, must grant withdrawal. Testimony at the hearing will add further proof.”“The governor of the state of Oregon has failed to ensure the residents of Clackamas County, and particularly Boring, their rights to representative government afforded by the Oregon State Constitution,” Bates said.Story here!

Congratulations to all 1,087 bus transportation employees who completed the 2011 recertification campaign! On Thursday, October 27, the 131st and final class completed the recertification which focused on some vital safety concepts - how, when and where to scan. Operators were instructed to:

· Scan before they get to a turn

· During their turn

· After completion of their turn

· One other key point trainers focused on - instructing operators to go into turns slower, especially the tight left and right hand turns. This allows plenty of time to do these three scans properly.

Midway through the campaign data showed operators who had completed the class received 10 percent fewer safety-related customer complaints than those not-yet recertified. In all, 1,022 bus operators and 65 managers/supervisors completed the training.

Like a wolverine digging at a rabbit's hole, this column seeks truth, wherever it lies. (Of course, if truth lies, how can you trust it? These are deep waters.) To this end, I have been reading feminists about what slugs men are, and bandits, and slaves of vanity, and cause loose fillings and sunspots and roach infestations. In the past I dismissed these tiresome viragos as mere creatures of bile and ill-breeding. This time, I thought, maybe I should listen to them. After all, ugly short-haired unmarried women are people too. Pretty close anyway.

McFarlane also told the board that he has imposed a hiring freeze requiring his approval of all new employment. In the past year, that has included four executive and manager positions, totaling $495,000 in annual salaries. "He considers all of those positions mission-critical,"(god please help us) said spokeswoman Mary Fetsch. "Each of them has been reprogrammed and expanded from other positions, often with lower salary costs."

Shut down WES commuter rail: $6.2 million. This idea comes from TriMet board member Steve Clark, who used it as an example this morning that “everything should be on the table.” WES offers Cadillac transit service – free WiFi, cushy seats, a conductor on every train – at Ferrari prices: $6.2 million last year. That’s a lot for a train that serves about 600815 people a day. Read the rest of this article here!

We all know TriMet thinks outside the bus, but never outside the box.Cut the salaries of all Managers, Directors and Executives by 15%. Most of these employees make over $100,000 per year (Thats anyone with the above words in their titles, or who act in such a capacity). While they say they have had a wage freeze, and cut positions, theres more that can be done here. There are over 100 employees making over $100k per year that fall under the above category. That is a savings of at least $1.5 million! Those who actually provide the service to the riders, have taken a pay cut, in the way of the forced upon Medical Premium sharing costs. The riders have put up with less service, less options. The nation is tightening its belt, and TriMet Admin/Execs has done this in almost every way, except to themselves. These people are selfish to keep making these above average salaries on the backs of its riders. If you can not afford the paycut, then you shouldn't be living outside your means in a economic climate like this, and it certainly shouldn't become the problem of your riders and customers. Take a paycut to preserve service, to preserve jobs, and to do the right thing in this economy.Read the rest of this excellent editorial HERE!

2. End the City of Portland Streetcar subsidy. City runs their own system, city can pay for their own system. If there is a legal challenge, then cut the overlapping service - don't cut service in Oregon City to pay for Portland's trolley.

3. All park-and-ride facilities become pay facilities. TriMet's job is not to run parking lots.

4. Immediate cut in non-revenue motor pool fleet. If you can't get there on TriMet, you don't need to go.

5. ZERO the travel budget. We can't afford to run buses; we certainly can't afford for junkets to RailVolution and Australia.

6. Eliminate WES. Plain and simple. If you can't eliminate WES, than eliminate the free Wi-Fi, charge to park, shut down the lighted platforms (including those Transit Tracker displays and TVMs) when WES is not in service, and charge distance based fares resulting in a Beaverton to Wilsonville ride costing around $6.00 if not more - one way, no transfer privilege. Also, if WES cannot be discontinued, convert to two train operation every 40 minutes so as to eliminate one train and its associated fuel and labor cost.

7. Convert MAX to distance based fares.

8. Eliminate all landscaping. TriMet's job is running buses and trains on time, not making sure trees and grass look pretty.

10. Review status of bus fleet, continue new bus purchases to reduce maintenance expense. Older buses cost more to run and maintain than new buses, so using federal funds to replace older buses will result in operating savings (including lower overtime expense, fewer mechanics needed).

11. Use articulated buses on heavy usage routes to reduce labor and fuel expense. Running 3 artics per hour (20 minute headways) provides the same quantity of service as 4 40' buses, but has 25% lower fuel and labor expense.

NEIL MACFARLANE SAYS:

Earlier this morning, I briefed the Board on the outlook for our upcoming budget. Yes, this is ‘earlier’ than we usually start – here’s why… We are in a time that I am calling the “new normal” – a time of when fiscal uncertainty has created the Perfect Storm leaving us to face a $12 to $17 million budget ‘gap’ in fiscal year 13 – the year that starts July 1, 2012. Why? Three main reasons: 1. Stagnant Economy – with employment in the region growing ever so slowly, our payroll tax (over 50% of our budget) grows slowly too. While we didn’t have ‘wild’ expectations – we were hoping to see that grow from 4 to 5% next year. Reality has forced us to reduce our projected revenues by $3 million for next year. 2. Federal formula funds – there is a great deal of uncertainty over federal formula funds which comprise about $42 million in revenue to us. Who knows what will happen, but ‘automatic’ reductions could go into effect and our estimate is about a $4 million impact on our budget. 3. The ATU contract – the recent ERB decision removed from TriMet’s final offer certain provisions – so some cost reductions we were hoping to see will have to wait for a future negotiation. This could mean between $5 and $10 million in our FY13 budget. All this said, TriMet continues to be a service our community needs and wants. We face increasing requests for more and better service. The hard reality is that we cannot afford to expand, and I'm awfully afraid our service levels will diminish. As a ride, I know how important it is to preserve service but it is hard to see how some cuts can be avoided. These are not easy choices. That is why everything needs to be on the table – fares, service, and current fare discounts. We will need to examine our activities and investments carefully, and make sure we are confident about the value of every dollar we spend. To give us added time to address these issues and make those tough choices, I have created a Budget Task Force that will begin to meet in November. Given our best budget assumptions, these key business and community members will be tasked with providing me suggestions on how to appropriately balance our budget. Starting early will give us more time for input from taxpayers, riders, and other stakeholders. The budget itself will need to come together through a series of actions during the first half of 2012. This certainly isn’t the news I was hoping to share, but it is important that I share with you what is ahead. I will need your ideas, help and continued commitment to delivering exceptional service, no matter the decisions. Neil
Document

Due to technical difficulties there is no video of Bruce speaking at the board meeting but according to reliable sources Bruce spoke on the subject Cascade Policy Institute and their anti transit propaganda. He also brought up the funding of the policy group as being from anonymous sources.
Bruce also talked about the "customer service committee" which is mandated by the union contract but does not exist at the present time.
The SIP's issue was discussed and the basic unfairness of that with drivers getting complaints because they actually are attempting to enforce the fare policy.

This is unreal, last month everything is hunky dory, new executives hired, new station agents hired, new road supervisors hired, a whole bunch of middle managers hired, Milwaukie MAX moving full speed ahead, new computer applications introduced, and this month THE SKY IS FALLING!

Mr Macfarlane has just gotten through adding at least 3 high priced executives to our budget, (safety director, labor director, cultural director) and now they have the nerve to talk about budget problems.

The fact that David Evans & Associates has filed a lawsuit to block the residents of Vancouver from gaining access under the Freedom of Information Act to the records pertaining to the $30 million in Columbia River Crossing funds that the firm has been paid has left me feeling really uneasy. An Oct. 11 story reported “CRC consultant sues to stop release of records.” What untoward thing do they have to hide?

My mind wonders about these records since our Mayor Tim Leavitt works for PBS Engineering as an engineer and his firm is associated with TriMet projects including their contract for light-rail cars, and David Evans & Associates has been contracted for light-rail projects for TriMet as well. This issue begs for a complete investigation before another step is made.

One of the ways that Wall Street has caused this massive shift of wealth strictly to the top 1 percent is in the way corporations have decimated pension funds. Investigative journalist Ellen Schultz wrote the book Retirement Heist: How Companies Plunder and Profit from the Nest Eggs of American Workers to illustrate how these corporations have pulled a reverse Robin Hood and robbed from the working poor to give yet even more to the rich. From the publisher's description:It's no secret that hundreds of companies have been slashing pensions and health coverage earned by millions of retirees. Employers blame an aging workforce, stock market losses, and spiraling costs- what they call "a perfect storm" of external forces that has forced them to take drastic measures.But this so-called retirement crisis is no accident. Ellen E. Schultz, award-winning investigative reporter for the Wall Street Journal, reveals how large companies and the retirement industry-benefits consultants, insurance companies, and banks-have all played a huge and hidden role in the death spiral of American pensions and benefits.A little over a decade ago, most companies had more than enough set aside to pay the benefits earned by two generations of workers, no matter how long they lived. But by exploiting loopholes, ambiguous regulations, and new accounting rules, companies essentially turned their pension plans into piggy banks, tax shelters, and profit centers.Drawing on original analysis of company data, government filings, internal corporate documents, and confidential memos, Schultz uncovers decades of widespread deception during which employers have exaggerated their retiree burdens while lobbying for government handouts, secretly cutting pensions, tricking employees, and misleading shareholders. She reveals how companies:Siphon billions of dollars from their pension plans to finance downsizings and sell the assets in merger dealsOverstate the burden of rank-and-file retiree obligations to justify benefits cuts while simultaneously using the savings to inflate executive pay and pensionsHide their growing executive pension liabilities, which at some companies now exceed the liabilities for the regular pension plansPurchase billions of dollars of life insurance on workers and use the policies as informal executive pension funds. When the insured workers and retirees die, the company collects tax-free death benefitsPreemptively sue retirees after cutting retiree health benefits and use other legal strategies to erode their legal protections.Though the focus is on large companies-which drive the legislative agenda-the same games are being played at smaller companies, non-profits, public pensions plans and retirement systems overseas. Nor is this a partisan issue: employees of all political persuasions and income levels-from managers to miners, pro- football players to pilots-have been slammed.

Except when it comes to health/safety, or if it's on a weekend... Earlier today I needed to transfer from a bus to a train at Hollywood TC. I took the elevator down to the train platform, and it was hard to miss the GIANT POOL OF VOMIT on the wall/floor of the elevator. It's Saturday so I can't call TriMet's customer service, so when my train came in I knocked on the cab door and told the operator.

He says, "Yeah we know, it was called in yesterday--"

"YESTERDAY?!" - I generally make an effort to not interrupt people, but seriously?

"--Yes, yesterday" he continued, "but with the cutbacks in cleaning apparently there's no one who can clean that until Monday morning."

So if you're going through the Hollywood TC & need to take the elevator tomorrow, enjoy riding it with 2-day old vomit. Sure, that sounds safe.

But it also appears to be in conflict with a federal labor law, sometimes referred to as 13C, which requires that public bodies receiving federal grants preserve the collective bargaining rights of public unions, according to Gerald Poisson, chairman of the SMART board of directors.The contracts of the four unions representing SMART employees expired Dec. 31. Because the new state law forbids SMART to pay for step increases and medical coverage provided for under the old contract, the Amalgamated Transit Union petitioned the Department of Labor to withhold $20 million to $26 million in federal grants to SMART -- which the feds have tentatively agreed to do.

Peter Rogoff, head of the Federal Transit Administration, presented a top honor to Metro and TriMet last week, pointing to the region as a leader in efficiency and inclusiveness. The light rail project received the 2011 Outstanding Achievement Award, which recognizes excellence in providing accessible, "truly useful" information to the public and decision-makers.

Friday, October 21, 2011

According to this online historical Tri-Met bus roster the 1100s were a group of GMC and Flxible New Look (a.k.a. "Fishbowl" buses) that were purchased second hand from a variety of sources including Denver and a Hawaiian transit agency. Tri-Met purchased the buses between 1975 and 1980 so they actually pre-date the 700s (artics) which were purchased in 1981. However the artics had more than their fair share of problems when introduced (including the infamous falling-off-the-wheelchair-lift incident resulting in the disabling of the center-door mounted wheelchair lifts, and the cracked frames).

Many of the buses were originally numbered in lower series, such as in the 200s, 400s, 500s, and 900s. In 1981, these buses were renumbered into the 1100 series to make way for the GMC RTS fleet that would occupy the 900 series. The RTSes and Crown-Ikarus flxibles would be the first buses delivered in the red, orange and brown stripe scheme and not the orange scheme Tri-Met used since its inception, and would exist well into the 1980s on older vehicles.

Tri-Met also had a trio of GMC buses in the 1200-1202 series. From 1988 through 1989 Tri-Met would backfill the now empty 500 and 600 series with the first order of Flxible Metros. In 1990, Gillig made its first appearance in Portland with a fleet of Phantoms showing up in the 1400 series - a model and series that exists to this day as TriMet's oldest fleet vehicle. For some reason the 1500 series was skipped over, and the 30 foot Phantoms took the 1600 series. Tri-Met returned to Flxible for more Metros in the 1700 and 1800 series, plus an order of 10 30' buses in the 1900 series in the mid-1990s.

By the late 1990s when Westside MAX was opened, Tri-Met (soon to become just TriMet) would place in service its 2000 series New Flyer D40LFs (TriMet's first Flyers) and its 2100 series Gillig Phantoms...and then retire the last of the 300 and 400 series Flxible New Looks dating back as far as 1972, the 700 series Crown-Ikarus artics, and the 900 series RTSes. Some of the 900 series vehicles were sold to SMART and Cherriots, and I am still kicking myself for not getting a picture of a former TriMet 900 series vehicle still in TriMet colors at the Barbur Transit Center running SMART's 2X route. (The bus was later repainted, but the Tri-Met fleet number above the driver's window was not removed giving a hint to its heritage. I have a picture of the bus in that paint somewhere, and I believe that bus was only recently retired when SMART purchased some used Phantoms, believed from C-Tran.) Cherriots has also recently retired its once large RTS fleet and replaced it with a mixed fleet of Orion and Gillig low-floor buses.

The 300s, 400s, 500s, and 700s quickly disappeared - rarely one can be found purchased by a private party who intended to convert it into a RV; I've never seen a successful conversion of an ex-TriMet bus. One bus, vehicle 434, was purchased by a "bus fan" and is the only known preserved former Tri-Met bus.

A week ago I sent out a note about some organizational realignments that I have put in place. Those changes are intended to better align the agency to focus on the very challenging work we have ahead of us. I know that change is hard and I want to thank you for your patience and support over the past few months. Now that the organizational changes have been made, some people will be physically moving to be closer to their new work groups. Throughout this process we attempted to communicate and involve you in conversations about these changes. However, there may have been some cases where we might not have been able to communicate as quickly as we wanted. I hope you understand that this was not intentional. Although the bulk of the organizational changes have been made, continuous improvement means we will be tweaking as needed. We have rough seas ahead of us with our many budget uncertainties. I will definitely keep you abreast of what all of this means as we begin to navigate these troubled waters. Communication, although not an exact science, is key to keeping us all afloat. I would ask that you focus on the destination and stay positive on the journey. We’re all in this together and I need everyone rowing in the same direction! Best to you all! Neil

I am pleased to welcome Randy Stedman to the TriMet family. Randy has been selected as TriMet’s new Executive Director of Labor Relations and Human Resources. Randy has over 30 years of human resources and labor relations experience and has spent the last nine years at Workplace Practices Group where he was the Founding Principal.
With nearly 85% of our workforce represented and with my desire to strengthen our relationship with the Amalgamated Transit Union, it’s more important than ever to have someone with Randy’s skills at the agency. His experience in building healthy relationships with labor unions and his strong background in human resources will make him a great addition to our current skilled HR team. His expertise in maintaining a highly-qualified and energized workforce will be invaluable to our agency as we work through these challenges together.
Randy’s primary responsibilities will be overseeing our labor relations and managing the Human Resources and Workforce Development departments. All will be located on the second floor here at Center Street. Randy’s first day at TriMet is November 14, 2011.
I know that you will join me in welcoming Randy to his new role here at TriMet.
Neil (Mcfarlane)

Last week, my commute home was interrupted. I was frustrated when my train was behind schedule, and then taken out of service.My reaction was similar to the reaction of those around me. “We are all late because your trains are running behind schedule, and your response is to kick us off the train and tell us to wait for the next one? Seriously, TriMet?”
The next day, it happened again. This time we were told there were too many trains. However, our train was nearly shoulder to shoulder. Saying there were too many trains, to those of us on the train, didn’t ring true. And it underlined that TriMet didn’t care about us, a train full of riders.READ THE ARTICLE HERE!

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Despite considerable investments in transit systems, there was only a marginal increase in usage (less than half of one percentage point). Even this was considered a triumph, because it ended an actual decline in transit use. Still, fewer than one in 20 workers uses public transportation to get to work. Cycling, for all the noise and debate about bike lanes, inched from 0.4% of workers to 0.5%. Another 40 years or so and it might make it to one in a hundred! Between 2000 and 2010, Metros (subways and elevated) accounted for 48% of the increase in transit commuting, while buses and a trolley buses accounted for 43%. Light rail (trolleys and streetcars) accounted for less than 2% of the additional transit commuting, despite the fact that light rail has been the dominant form of rail transit expansion.Get that? People take subways. They don’t take streetcars. No matter how effective streetcars may be in Copenhagen. And they’d rather stay home and work than take either.

Even our daily sojourns to the office are affected by the twists and turns in the U.S. tax code. If you drive to work, your employer can cover up to $230 per month in parking costs tax-free. And in recent years, if you take mass transit, your employer has also been able to reimburse you, tax-free, for up to $230. This latter program was part of the 2009 stimulus bill, and one Businessweek survey found that, when companies do offer it, many workers really do shift to public transportation.

I am reviewing the latest RSA (request for safety)which was updated 10/13/11.

According to the report, there has been no request for safety assessment since May 2011?

That's rather odd, unless you have been working here for awhile.

Many of us have found out that unless your request is about some sort of mechanical issue, (sign is broken, light is broken etc)then nothing will be changed.

So we gave up, just like we did with the yellow cards.

We get tired of putting our effort, on our time, into a process that goes nowhere

Some management crony, who most likely knows nothing about the route or about driving a bus, is paid to review these and then comes up with an elaborate explanation as to why they won't do anything about the structural issue.

For example: fans for buses without air conditioning, or road reliefs that require you to jump in the seat and then make the necessary adjustments to mirrors, seats, etc as you drive down the road.

Another fake "process" that changes nothing created by our top managers who are addicted to bureaucratic answers to real world problems.